At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: But he that refraineth his lips is wise.
Proverbs 10:19
For those who are concerned about the content of their speech, about the quality of it, a good place to begin the discipline is with the quantity of the speech.
The more we talk, the more likely it is that we are speaking without time for prior reflection. And when we do that, we find that thoughtless speech is frequently sinful speech. When there are lots of words, you don’t have to look very long before finding something sinful in it.
A wise individual is one who recognizes that even the speech of a wise person requires a governor. Something must be done to restrain the tongue, to restrain the lips. How many times have we all said something smart and we recognized it instantly as folly from the backside as it was swiftly departing to do all the damage it was going to do? No catching up with it now.
Wise individuals are frequently smart, and smart individuals are frequently quick-witted, and so this is something that they must take special care to guard against. When a witticism occurs to you, should there not be a special holding area in your brain, in which you let the witticism sit for a bit, reflecting on what a life of godliness should look like? You don’t have to choose, but it would be better to be a dullard and kind than quick-witted and cruel.
So the place to begin is with the quantity of your words, and that is related to how fast the words come out. If you want to fill the bathtub quickly, you turn the handles all the way to the left. If you want your life to be free from the destructive flooding that thoughtless words can bring about, you don’t do that.
